Volume 91, No.4, July-August 2005 Under the Gargoyle Gazette Campus Observer Forum ... Duke Alumni Assoc.
Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX
As one tiny piece of the sweeping Educational Amendments of 1972, Title IX was proposed by a determined group of women who thought it was wrong that schools could discriminate against girls and women just because they were female. If such a declaration seems tame today, at the time of its introduction it was anything but. As Wall Street Journal reporter Karen Blumenthal explains in her informative and inspiring new book, Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the authors and advocates of the law had to engage in prickly political battles, make strategic though unwanted concessions and, even, at one point, vote against a weakened version of their own law. As Title IX was implemented and interpreted, it was challenged at almost every turn. Arguably the strongest opposition came in response to the stipulation that males and females have an equal opportunity to compete in sports. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), at the time dedicated to the advancement of men's athletics only, heard about the implications of Title IX for women's sports and, by extension, men's sports. The argument was no longer a moral one, it was financial: Men's athletics was big business, and the NCAA and its constituents feared that providing women with similar resources would drain money from men's sports programs. | |
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